Deceased organ donor rate both DBD and DCD in Europe 2022-2023

In 2023, Spain had the highest rate of deceased donors in Europe. The rate of organ donation, including donation after brain death (DBD) and after cardiac death (DCD), was 49.4 per million population. Portugal had the second highest rate of deceased organ donation in Europe after increasing to a rate of 36.8 per million population. Sweden experienced the largest increase in the rate of organ donation between 2021 and 2022, going from 10.2 to 25.2 donors per million population. 

Waiting times for organs

Among the Eurotransplant community (composed of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Slovenia) over 1.2 thousand individuals died while on the transplant waiting list in 2022. Almost half of those that died on the list were waiting for a kidney, followed by around a quarter waiting for a liver. 

Situation in the UK

In the period 2021/22, over 3.4 thousand organ donations were carried out in the UK, this figure had generally increased prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were over 6.2 thousand patients on the transplant waiting list in the UK in 2022, indicating that although the number of transplants is increasing, the amount is still not enough to match the demand for organs.